“Microsoft has strongly advised Australians to avoid buying its Zune music player from local retailers,” Asher Moses reports for The Sydney Morning Herald. “The software giant is yet to announce plans to distribute the device in Australia, but that did not stop one Australian retailer from obtaining stock.”
“Mwave.com.au, an online store based in Sydney, sells the Zune for $389. It appears to be the first and only retailer in Australia to stock the player, although some second-hand units have been sold through eBay,” Moses reports. “An Mwave spokesman said ‘about 100 units’ had been sold since it began stocking the Zune in late December last year.”
Moses reports, “But a Microsoft spokeswoman urged: ‘We highly recommend that Australians do not purchase a Zune from this retailer at this time.’ The Mwave spokesman said the retailer had yet to receive a formal complaint from Microsoft, so its Zune sales would continue unabated.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “mpi” for the heads up.]
An online store — not a brick and mortar store confined to one outlet, but an online outlet readily available to the entire country of Australia — has sold 100 Zunes in approximately 50 days. Or two (2) per day in Australia. Two. Does Microsoft really need to “highly recommend” that Australians who are not buying Zunes, not buy Zunes? Yet, Australian Zune sales will “continue unabated!” If that’s not a joke, it should be. We’re continually amazed that some people survive daily life, despite being so obviously challenged.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for Microsoft to announce plans to distribute their Zune failure in Australia or anywhere else.
Related articles:
Buh-bye: Senior Zune exec exits Microsoft – January 31, 2007
Last quarter: Microsoft lost $289 million on Zune, CE devices – January 26, 2007
RealMoney’s Comeau predicts: ‘Microsoft will kill the first Zune media player by midyear’ – December 16, 2006
Thurrott reviews Microsoft Zune: ‘a joke, a travesty, I can’t imagine what they were thinking’ – November 28, 2006
Ihnatko: Microsoft Zune experience about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face – November 24, 2006
TheStreet.com: It’s not looking good for Microsoft’s Zune; bad press may taint brand for years – November 24, 2006
Microsoft’s Zune selling like snotcakes – November 15, 2006
What a great way to start my day. I needed a good laugh. LOL!!
Zune rules!!
I wonder if that too is in MS’s business plan. Let’s see….we will make (or get others to make) entertainment hardware. We will sell each unit at a loss. And last but not least, we will recommend that people DON”T BUY THEM?????
Hahahahah if I didn’t know MS and someone told me this story, I wouldn’t have believed them for a second.
100 Zunes sold. Probably 99 of those are sold to reviewers who had to write about it for some publication or other and the last single Zune went to a real customer. There is always somebody after all who will buy something no matter how little sense it makes.
Cheers
That ‘Zune in the Can’ picture is hilarious
—————————————
Banks, retailers, and other businesses with IE-only web sites not only lose access to 6% of their users, but 6% of their best customers, US!! – pass it on!
Oh, the hilarity.
Microsoft then advises … “We highly recommend that no one buys the Zune.”
Reminds me of the Flowbee info-mercial from back in the day…
“We are literally selling…hundreds…of these…” BWAHHHAHAHAAHHA!!!
MEMO:
Attention Bill Gates:
OK Bill you’ve always been someone I’ve really admired, um no, that’s not the right word. You’re someone I’ve always recognised. I’ll take your advice and I won’t buy a Zune. No bloody way! However, if I was going to buy a Zune like wow (not) then I’d be stuck with my 60 gig ipod photo. Therefore you’ve helped me make up my mind and I’ll stick with my ipod. And I was really waiting to buy a brown Zune because they’re like so cool, just like you.
P.S. I know that Steve Ballmer is so sexy it reminds me of the sex life of the woodworm
NOTE:
HEADLINE-
Ty D Bol Man Protest Zune In Toilet
‘It’s not safe to go in there anymore’
DEVELOPING
Never underestimate the power of stupidity.
I just checked Amazon and the Zune seems to still be the 4th bestselling “MP3 player” behind 12 flavors of iPod, 3 SanDisk Sansa’s, and a Creative Zen. Not great, but better than I expected (though those numbers could be bumped up by used sales as there are 32 more Zunes, Zens, and Sansas for sale than there are iPods combined).
We highly recommend that Americans do not purchase a Zune from any retailer at this time. We have come to realize that the Zune is not really a very good MP3 player at all. It’s not a very good movie player, either. Hell, it’s not even a very good paper weight, since it’s apt to leave brown stains where it’s placed. We’re sorry for those of you how might have purchased a Zune, but hey, our company is run by a neanderthal proto-human with a giant tongue. You can’t really tell this guy no because he’ll fling poo (and possibly a Hermann Miller) at you.
Please buy an Apple iPod, because, I mean, who are we kidding, they are kinda awesome, right? Yeah. Sorry.
-Microsoft
I strongly advise anyone to avoid buying Zunes.
Hey, I really think that you guys are missing what is happening here. Its good old American capitalism. LOL
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With Zunes being sold at discount from $169 to $ 189 in some places, this guy is rounding up all the cheap Zunes he can find and reselling them for $ 389, thats a 100 % profit. Smart guy. Hey, no one said that he was using a Zune!!!! Just selling them. LOL
N.
See M$ cares more about Australians than Americans…..they give them good advice.
Why does M$ hate Americans so much?
Just my $0.02
Seriously, I wonder if you bought one, and never used it, or even opened the box, if a Zune might be actually worth something one day? Who would have ever thought old baseball cards or comics would be worth thousands?
Ofcourse, one difference is that alot of people actually bought comics and bubble gum.
Jay:
The other major difference is that comics and baseball cards have, or have had, value.
By your way of thinking, if I took a crap and sealed it in shrink wrap, it would one day be a collector’s item. The same goes for the Zune.
To conclude, as evidenced in the picture, Zune equals crap.
> so its Zune sales would continue unabated.>
Hahahahahahahaha. The best line ever!
I wouldn’t have one of the things, but to suggest that because we Apple-oriented users think it’s crap now, absolutely in no way deminishes the fact that there are any number of items that failed that are eventually collectable.
Relatively no one bought Ford Edsels either; now in certain circles they are collectable.
Can you imagine walking around Australia looking for someone to squirt a tune to?
Talk about going walkabout. You could do a Forrest Gump and still not meet another user.
Oy, Oy, Oy! Don’t buy an Auzzie Zune today! No flippin’ way!!! — (mate)
They are just waiting to introduce two new Zune colors for Australians only:
“Vegimite” and “Chunder”.
-c
Zune Tang,
No sane Australian says No flipin’ way. And it’s spelt Aussie not Auzzie. Go crawl back under your rock you stupid galah, the sun’s beginning to affect your mind.
Why stop at Australia?
They should tell the rest of the world to give it a miss too?